Written and first recorded by Stuart Hamblen (1954).
Hit versions by Rosemary Clooney (US #1/UK #1 1954), Billie Anthony (UK #4 1954). Shakin’ Stevens (UK #1 1981).
From the wiki: “Stuart Hamblen was supposedly out on a hunting expedition when he and fellow hunter, actor John Wayne, came across a tumbledown hut in the mountains, many miles from civilization. They went into the hut and there, lying amongst the rubbish and rubble of a crumbling building, was the body of a dead man. The man’s dog was still alive and, although starving, guarding his dead master’s home.
“This inspired Hamblen to write ‘This Ole House,’ which Rosemary Clooney and, later, Shakin’ Stevens, treated as a bouncy Rock and Roll number, rather than the epitaph for a mountain man that it was meant to be.”
Rosemary Clooney, “This Ole House” (1954):
http://youtu.be/qTrnPsisqIc
Shakin’ Stevens, “This Ole House” The Money Pit soundtrack (1981):